Head of the National Audit Office Sigurdur Thórdarson is very dissatisfied with the Foreign Ministry, which he claims has delayed providing information on water leakage in the former US Naval Air Station in Keflavík for six months.
“We are not used to such work methods,” Thórdarson told Fréttabladid yesterday.
When the US military left Keflavík in September 2006, its properties were handed over to the Icelandic state and the Foreign Ministry became responsible for them. In November last year, water leakage damaged many empty apartments in the former Naval Air Station.
Valgerdur Sverrisdóttir, who was Foreign Minister at the time, apologized for the damages at Althingi parliament November 22, stating the damage was worth ISK tens of millions (ISK 10 million = USD 165,000, EUR 115,000) and said the state would cover the cost of repairs.
The next day Sverrisdóttir requested that the Audit Office make a debit of the Foreign Ministry’s supervision and maintenance in the formal Naval Air Station. Six months ago the Audit Office requested additional information in order to finish the debit, but is still waiting.
Thórdarson said this waiting period is unusually long and that he is “extremely dissatisfied,” with the delay. “We have asked the Ministry for information again and again.”
Neither Foreign Minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir nor Permanent Secretary of State Grétar Már Sigurdsson commented to Fréttabladid on this story yesterday.
